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Dr. Bob Clarke teaches Part Time Marketers how to better leverage their time, effort, money, skills, and other people's knowledge in maximizing their business success. Don't forget to grab your Free Training Grow a Thriving Business in 30 Minutes/Day or Less -- an essential resource for anyone struggling to build their business Part Time.

I have been considering getting into doing Guest Blogging lately. I believe that guest posting is most important to enhance the value of a blog and can help improve the development of the blog into a more positive direction. I agree with Dr. Bob and welcome him for this valuable post. So this topic will clear many points why a new blog hit by guest blogging. Actually it is more productive and gives you a better result that the reader there will be surely go and visit your blog.

Hello; Fear isn’t my problem, its finding blogs to comment on. My two main fields are blindness and the amusement industry. I’ve found very few blogs for carnivals, fun fairs, party rentals, amusement parks, etc. will keep searching. thanks for the great article, max

Thanks for the resource; I watched or that is listened to his video and subscribed to the email alerts. As the point of my blog is to promote sales on my website I’m open to just about any suggestion for improving the blog and traffic to it. Thanks again, max

I must confess I’m scared to death of submitting guest posts. The blogs I really respect are high, high above all the rest. I’m reminded of that Groucho Marx saying that he wouldn’t want to belong to a club that accepts people like him as members. Auch!

Nicely done post. I think guest posting is a great way for both parties to get the exposure they need. I recommend it especially for people just starting out in blogging, a great way to network and build your brand. I enjoyed the points you made here.

Hi,
I’m new here to your site. I’ve been glued to it since I opened it up a half hour ago; got here from Janet Callaway.
My guest posting on Tiny Buddha’s blog (Lori Deschene) is what gave me the confidence and real impetus to get going on my own blog. My blog is now coming upon it’s one year anniversary. I consider myself a new blogger and a new learner to this whole new world of social media.(have a said ‘new’ enough times here!) I’ve now guest posted on her site 6 times; she has become my mentor. I reached out and have also guest posted on The Bridgemaker (Alex Caldwell); he even asked me if I’d like to submit a post once a month. That sort of scared me, but of course I said yes. My ‘fear’ is in having enough content for that and my own, which I try to write twice a week. But I embrace all and say yes to just about any invites and deal with the uncertainty later.
I’ll be back to your site. Really very interesting. Thank you.

Often times, we tend to be afraid that writing guest posts won’t work, even worse we fear that it might not get read. There will come a time that we will have to get over it, and just do it. We have nothing to lose but everything to gain.

Writing guest posts on other websites is one of the best ways to generate traffic to your website and build your online reputation. One thing you need to keep in mind is that for guest posts to work you need to post them on blogs similar to your niche. – Mitt

Great point, Mitt… the blogs on which you guest post should be related to your overall niche, or what’s the point. Google doesn’t take kindly to blindly adding external links from blogs that are totally irrelevant to your readers.

But as I cautioned Amie below, be careful not to restrict your guest blogging search to only those blogs with a high PR or Alexa ranking. Google likes to see a variety of incoming links, from high traffic and lower traffic sites (high PR to low PR).

Thanks for this post! These were really good advices. I also had a lot of problems in the beginning, in writing guest posts, but now i am doing that without any fear. it brought a lot of traffic to my blog as well, so everything is perfect.

Very nice advise on the reasons to consider guest blogging. I have for the first time been asked to do a guest blog and am working up my article this week. 🙂

It’s pretty exciting to me and I think that this kind of activity is one of the very reasons that makes internet marketing so appealing to me. This sense of community which is formed via blogger relationships is a really interesting element to have and when we get the opportunity to let that community support us each, we all shine.

I have just published a guest post on my blog about the benefits of writing guest posts and comparing them to the benefits of writing articles. It’s a very well written post that get people thinking 😉

I have written 2 guest posts before. The first one was meant to be were a few bloggers were asked a certain question. So I made my reply and then the blogger changed it to individual blog post rather than one post with loads of answers.

Because of that i felt the quality of my post was lacking quality content, due to it being a brief summary but it was really well received so worked out ok in the end 🙂

The second one was for another blogger who had some health issues and was finding it hard to sit up and write. having had my own fair share of similar issues i thought I’d help out and write him a post.

As I knew this was going to be a complete post I made sure that i was happy with it before sending it to him, he published it and again it has been well received.

So if anyone is still unsure about writing guest posts then please pop over and read the one on my blog at the moment, it sure does open our eyes to the benefits 🙂

I used to work as a paid guest blogger, and I found that the best way to increase your chances of getting your draft approved is to coordinate with the blog owner or whoever is assigned for that. Initially, it began with an emailed inquiry about what possible topics the blog might want to have covered. The blog owners usually reply with some ideas. Some owners reply with specific topics. That’s the best way to overcome the fear of guest blogging–knowing where to start writing.

I always contact the blog owner after I’ve commented for a while on his/her blog. That way they usually have heard my name before and it gives me a good starting point to the discussion. And you;’re right — coordinating your posts with the owner is the best way to proceed.

Hi, Bob. I suppose your strategy works, too. I haven’t tried that before, as it seemed somewhat time-consuming. But, I get the idea of what your strategy is trying to achieve. In my case, I was always in a hurry to get my guest posts published because I was a hired hand. Haha. Hired hands don’t have the luxury of time, you know.

I’m a little embarrassed to say I have been slow to get on the guest posting bandwagon. One thing I think people should add to choosing blogs to guest post on is their domain rank. Smaller blogs are great for relationships but I recently found out that hbr.org takes guest posts… and you don’t have to be a Harvard grad. That would be some incredibly link juice if they accept your piece.

The only guest post I have done so far was featuring my husband David. He is into the technical aspect of things and I, the self help gal. Together we do make a great team, but my blog needed more concrete leverage. I intend to do more of it for all the reasons you have listed above.

This blog was awesome. It was very clear as to the how to’s and benefits of blogging. Guest posting does bring in more people to your blog. BRAVO…great job as usual.
Donna

Ah Bob, I’m happy to say I’ve done three so far. I know, it’s not a lot but people have come to me and asked me to write a guest post for their blog. I haven’t gone looking for them.

I was petrified to be honest with you but for none of the reasons you mentioned. I know that people say you should write for your readers and not for you but I write for me. I write my experiences and things I have learned and use me as an example. I write that way because I feel that there are people out there who can relate to what I’m going through or who want to learn what I have.

I was afraid that writing for someone else at their place that their readership wouldn’t be as receptive to my writing style. Maybe I just had the right people seek me out because my first guest post got over 150 comments and it’s the most he’s ever received on his blog. My other two haven’t done too darn shabby either and you are right, you’ll get some new readers because of it. Luckily for me, I already had a relationship with those blog owners.

I get a few invitations a month to do a guest post but they are very time consuming. I already have another one coming up soon so although I know how important they can be to bringing more traffic to your site, it’s finding the time to put into those posts because I definitely want them to be good ones.

Great advice Bob. Some that everyone should consider doing. It will get you out of that box and introduce you to new people. It’s really a very cool experience, one I’m glad I dove into.

I understand what you mean about worrying if “your voice” will resonate with someone else’s readers. I’ve had the same fears and that’s why I tend to hang out on a blog before submitting a guest post. I can get a general feel for what the readers expect and the kind of information they’re used to receiving.

I think this is a real issue for many bloggers. Thing is that guest posting is so effective, and such a win-win thing.

I loved your blog post on my blog, it’s got a number one google ranking and brought a fresh influx of traffic. My hope is that on top of the links you get (and continue to get) some traffic flowing back to your blog too.

It’s another one of those areas where just diving in is the way to go… Those that wait on the sidelines never get to score the goals, after all…

I also enjoyed my guest blogging experience over at your blog, which everyone here should check out.

And you are so right — diving in is the way to go. Too many people “get ready to get ready” and never get to it. Do a bit of homework, build that relationship by commenting and contacting the author and then go for it!

thanks for sharing your insights about guest posting. You are right that everybody is afraid of it in the beginning, just like we were when we started blogging. Like everything else, it is a skill that can be learned and the reasons you mention should motivate anybody – such as more exposure and relationship building.

The most critical step is getting to know the other blogger and building a relationship with them. I once had someone I hardly knew who wanted to publish a guest post on my blog. A request I rejected also because he wrote that we had been commenting frequently on each other’s blogs which wasn’t true, it was just a pitch. That’s the way not to do it.

So right, Oliver… there is a right way and a wrong way. I get “pitched” several times each month for people wanting to guest post on this blog. When deciding whether or not to allow it, my first rule is whether or not I know this person.

Chances are if I haven’t seen him on the blog making comments, he hasn’t done his homework and is just trolling for blogs on which to comment. That’s not the kind of guest I’m looking for.

Congratulations with your blogging successes! You are a model to many, Oliver!

I know that it’s good for SEO, but I feel like I am up to my neck with assignments from my clients and my own blog–I don’t have time to write for someone else’s blog. I’ll bookmark this article in case I decide to do so in the near future. Thank you and have a nice day!

It can be overwhelming, Jim trying to do everything we’re “supposed” to do for our blogs. I feel your pain.

My suggestion is to ease into it. Maybe write one guest post this month and one the next and see where it takes you. You may find that you love it or it’s not for you. There are plenty of other ways to build quality back links than guest posting.